Noncorrugating fabric



Oct. 12, 1954 5. J. JAMISON ETAL 2,691,391

NONCORRUGATING FABRIC Filed June 18, 1951 I N V EN TOR.- [P50 )2 7515. BY (41054 J JZIM/JQ/V.

AT ORNEYI Patented Oct. 12, 1954 En PA T -ENT fl-FF-l C-E iNON GORRUGATIN G FABRIC Samuel J. "Jamison. and Fred Yates; Springfield,

Mass, assignors jto Chicopee Manufacturing "Corporation-"a"corporation of Massachusetts Application June .18,

.turbances and consequently not transmitted throughout the entire.- fabric structure, as is the case :a stiffened :fabric or in a high-count fabric. Ordinarylow-count fabrics ofthistype, woven of yarns s-spun iof swellable staple fibers and whose twistv multipliers are. not greater than 4.75, will corrngate when esubjected to j modern laundering techniques as in :a "modern washing machine and then dried. These corrugations appear as a systematic series of waves running almost entirely in Lone dimension .Of the :woven fabric, giving-a pronouncedparalledrutted effect thereto.

In explanation of this phenomenon, when a low-count wovenfabric is thoroughly -Wet-'-'-out in water an'dintheabsence of violent agitation, a

normal shrink-age re'action 'occurs. Each fiber "and each warn Y with-in the structure swells and the potential energy imparted to the fabric in its manufacturing processes is converted into kinetic energy. The swelling of the members within the fabric structure and the conversion of potential energy in the fabric to kinetic energy (evidenced by motion) must be compensated for by a reorientation of the entire fabric structure through one means or another. In a low-count fabric as it has been defined, the reorientation usually manifests itself by the component yarns assuming a more pronounced crimp and drawing themselves closer to one another. Such normal shrinkage reorientation is relatively gradual and occurs in ordinary laundering of the textile article during the first few washings.

It is believed, however, that when a low-count woven textile article is laundered by techniques involving high centrifugal and tumbling forces the shrinkage reaction is relatively violent. The reorientation of the fabric structure, as its components swell and its kinetic energy is released, must take place so rapidly that the fabric structure, in order to accommodate such reorientation, is put under great stress. The yarns for the most part are unable to assume greater crimp or draw themselves closer together at the rate required to dissipate the released shrinkage 1951,-;Serial N0.w232,141

2 forces by the simple process of reorientation already described. The frictionpoints at.the ,yarncros'sings'ifrequently willnot yield to allow ltheyarns to idrawicloser.together,. and the same .length-ofthenow swollenyarn must,'instead,

yield in the .span of the yarn between friction .pointslto accommodate theyarns in theircloser ,.proXimity which results from their swelling ac- .tion. Consequently the entire I fabric structure 0 .buckleslocallysat many of these spansthrough- V out the material. It has beenobserve'dthatthe .buckling -.occurs systematically, Tforming crests and troughs .in .the. fabric. running in onev direction .of .thelabric. The buckled .spans .occur v i relative to ,one vanother.in the structurein what appears-to .bel-almost:sine-waveprecision. The crests-.andltroughs are. ofirelatively high amplitude and lineup in generally. parallel disposition relative to one another .usually spaced with a fraction of an. inchbetweenadjacent furrows.

. Onerof the.objectsof the present inventionis l? to, provide a: lowecount wovemtextile article. that will -lay flat .without corrugations rafter lit .has ..been laundered -by stechniques .involving high .25 centrifugal and tumbling forces.

.The. invention lies. inia low count. wovenifabric Hstructure-thatwill randomize the-.dissipationnf shri kage -forces-,-1ocal ly-asthesesforces are released on laundering even with high centrifugal or tumbling-type washing machines. It is thus possible to avoid a pronounced and systematic buckling of the fabric structure itself and the fabric will lay flat. By reversing the twist spun into one out of every two to four warp yarns in the fabric so that they are of opposed twist to the other warp yarns, and by weaving the fabric of yarns having a twist multiplier no greater than 1.75, it has been found that corrugations do not occur in such low-count woven fabrics under the most violent laundering conditions. This is probably because with such fabric construction the release of shrinkage forces occurs geometrically haphazardly. The haphazard release of forces prevents the buckling of the fabric structure according to any systematic pattern. Be-

cause of this haphazard release of forces, there is no organized coaction of forces to create periodic furrows The preferred fabric structure of this invention is a low-count woven fabric of yarns whose twist multiplier is less than 4.75 with alternate warp yarns having a twist directionally opposed to the twist in the remainder of the warp yarns and the weft yarns being of unidirectional twist.

The invention will be explained, by way of illustration, as it applies to a simple low-count woven textile article such as a cotton diaper.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a rectangle of low-count woven textile material such as a diaper made according to the invention after it has been washed and dried by modern automatic laundering techniques;

Fig. 2 is of an enlarged partial section at line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a rectangle of conventional low-count woven textile material such as a diaper after it has been washed and dried by modern automatic laundering techniques; and

Fig. 4 is of an enlarged partial section at line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, there is shown a cotton diaper l woven with alternate warp yarns [I having a right-hand twist and the remainder of the warp yarn ll having a left-hand twist. Diaper i0 is made of two plies of low-count fabric (that is, a fabric in which the shrinkage forces released on wetting are dissipated by local compensating disturbances, and consequently not transmitted throughout the entire fabric structure). All of the warp and weft yarns in the fabric are spun with twist multipliers no greater than 4.75. With this type of fabric, there is no apparent corrugation in the fabric structure after laundering by methods involving violent agita-' tion and then drying. This type of fabric construction is capable of randomizing the dissipation of the shrinkage forces without patterned corrugations even when such forces are released at unusually high rates. As shown in Fig. 1, diapers of this construction will lay fiat.

To be more specific, and by way of example only, a cotton diaper was woven with a warp yarn number of '25s and the weft yarn number of 35s. The weft yarns were spun with a twist multiplier of 3.75 left-hand. Alternate warp yarns had a twist multiplier of 4.25 right-hand, and the others a twist multiplier of 4.25 lefthand. The resulting fabric was cut into rectangular diapers of 40 inches by 21 inches. The diapers were laundered in an automatic washing machine having a washing wheel that carried the diaper from the bottom of the bath to a height of 27 inches whereupon the diaper dropped by gravity to the bottom of the bath. The washer wheel rotated at 36 revolutions per minute. The diaper was subjected to the violent tumbling action thereby created for a period of 60 minutes at each laundering and then dried. The test was repeated thirty times. As shown in Fig. 2, no noticeable corrugations occurred after each laundering and drying test.

As a control, the identical test was made on a diaper- 20 such as that shown in Figs. 3 and 4 having warp yarns 2| and weft yarns 22, the yarns count, yarns number, and twist multipliers being the same as in the improved diaper previously described; except that all of the yarns in this diaper were spun with a left-hand twist. At the end of each laundering test, under the same conditions as before, the diaper had a series of deep periodic corrugations 23 (Fig. 4).

The invention has been described with reference to one embodiment thereof but many modifications are included within its spirit. It is to be limited, therefore, only by the scope of the appended claim.

The invention claimed is:

An unstiifened low-count, cross woven fabric having all of its yarns possessing a twist multiplier no greater than 4.75 and wherein the shrinkage forces released on wetting are dissipated by local compensating disturbances and not transmitted throughout the entire fabric, said fabric having to per cent of its warp yarns possessing a twist reverse from that of the remainder of the warp yarns and distributed throughout the fabric in a manner sufiiciently regular to prevent corrugation when the fabric is laundered by techniques involving high centrifugal and tumbling forces.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 889,827 Teufel June 2, 1908 2,081,370 Secrist May 2'5, 1937 2,215,938 Schonholzer Sept. 24, 1940 2,400,276 Whitman May 14, 1946 

